Zero Hour
by Frank Hunter
Summary: Friends reunite before the second war. A partial bridge from Megaman X to Megaman X2, and an epilogue to The Megaman X Files. One-shot. Reviews are greatly appreciated.


Note: This story takes place In between Megaman X and X2, just before the storyline to X2 picks up. The characters and events correspond to a sprite comic I've been playing with called "The Megaman X Files," which tells in detail the events that occurred during the first Megaman X game. If you like Zero Hour, head on over to wwwDOTmmxfilesDOTcom and see if you can stomach my sprite comic. More readers might encourage me to actually work on the comic more. I'd also appreciate any reviews on the story itself. I like to know whether or not people like my work. Enjoy!

**Megaman X: Zero Hour**  
By, Frank Hunter

What a relief. She picked up the phone.

"Hello? Who's there?"

"Rubie, it's me."

"Your display's a little fuzzy, I can't see you. Who is this?"

"…it's X."

Silence. X would have been a fool to expect a warm welcome after the departure they'd had almost six months earlier. Of course it wasn't his fault, but that didn't mean Rubie had great feelings toward the Maverick Hunters as a whole. He'd tried to protect her…

"…what do you want, X?"

"I just need a place to rest for a few hours. I wouldn't ask, but you're the only safe transport point within range. I'm afraid to move anywhere else."

"Afraid? X, wha…"

"Please Rubie. I'm desperate."

Silence again, followed by a soft beep. X looked at his display and saw that he'd been allowed access to Rubie's personal transporter. _Well that's a start_, he thought to himself as he realized she'd already hung up on him. Leaning against the wall to help himself up, X looked down at the remains of his blaster beside him on the floor. One dangling wire still attached the mess to his right arm. It was well beyond useful.

Diverting his attention for a moment, X surveyed his surroundings. The empty warehouse hardly felt safe. His assailant could have followed him here. He could be hiding in the shadows…

_No!_ X commanded himself. _It was a random teleport. It was untraceable. Focus._

Picking the blaster up from the floor with his one good arm, he prepared for the teleportation to his real sanctuary. Even given the circumstances, he was happy for the excuse to see Rubie again. X had never been as close to a human as he had gotten to Rubie. She had always filled him with that sense of warmth and compassion that he strove for; that he thought Dr. Light had wanted him to feel all along. Her humanity inspired him.

_But she isn't human anymore,_ X reminded himself. That one grim fact defined the entire situation. And it made X cold. Closing his eyes, he felt the familiar sense of floating as the transporter took him.

Materializing in what he assumed to be Rubie's living room, X got the sense that he hadn't gone anywhere at all. The walls were gray and undecorated. The place felt as bitter as the hole he'd just crawled out of. The only difference was the girl sitting at the table across the room. She was familiar to him, but she was not happy.

Rubie looked very much as she had the last time X saw her. Her face, despite the twisted, disturbed expression that plagued it, still looked as soft and human as X preferred to remember her. She still had her red hair. The rest of her, though, was the exact opposite. Her armored legs barely fit beneath the table. They resembled X's own in size and shape, but to Rubie, not being able to take them off was unnatural and inhuman. An armor plate rose out of the waistband and covered her stomach, above and to the right of her belly button and around her side. It never was possible to heal that wound entirely. The result: her entire lower half was robotic. Reploid technology. Her cybernetic appendages were the price she paid.

For a moment Rubie's guarded expression dropped into a look of concern. "X!" she cried, getting half to her feet before resolving once again to be angry. "What happened?"

X knew he wasn't much to look at just then. Aside from the one arm dangling by a thread, his right breastplate was damaged to the point that he could see his own circuitry through it, and that side of his helmet's faceplate had been ripped off entirely. He approached the table and sat, digging for his field repair kit. At the very least he needed to get his blaster soldered and functional. "I was careless," he responded to Rubie, simply.

"Don't give me that gung-ho, over-modest attitude, X. You're starting to sound a bit too much like Zero, and we both know how well that worked out for him."

"_Don't_ attack me for _that_!" X lashed out at her, glaring straight into her eyes. Taken aback, Rubie finally lost her angry demeanor and a look of sympathy came over her face. Taking in X's emotion, she suddenly understood.

"He's the reason you were out tonight, isn't he?"

X nodded, beginning to reconnect a couple of the smaller wires to his shoulder.

"I'm sorry," she said.

"Don't worry about it," he replied, exhaling slowly. "I know this has been hard on us all."

"So what _did_ happen?"

"Like I said, I was careless. I thought someone was coming up behind me."

Rubie was confused. "But if no one was there who did this to you?"

X shook his head. "It wasn't some_one_, it was some_thing_. A huge steel ball, bigger than me, covered in spikes. I turned around, mounted my feet and raised my blaster…you know, a standard case one defensive stance," he glanced up at her to see if she did, in fact, remember. After a nod, he continued, "Anyway it was coming too fast. It hit me straight on and did, well, this." He gestured to his arm.

"Who threw it?"

"I never saw him. After the first hit I ran. Jumped into a random teleport. I wound up in a warehouse three clicks south of here. Then I called you." X looked up at her concerned face and smiled slightly. "Guess I was lucky."

Rubie didn't return the smile, and X continued his work. For the next minute all that could be heard were the hissing sounds of sparking metal before a red light on his still severed forearm appeared. When she finally spoke again it was the obvious and most important question. "Did you find him?"

X shook his head. "But I feel like I'm close. I've been all over the world, following Mavericks, chasing down any lead. There are only so many who could have been there to take him, you know?" The first light turned green and a second red one appeared.

Rubie took hold of X's broken arm and looked at him. "May I?" she asked. When he nodded, she began sorting out some of the tangled mess for him.

X continued, "The last Maverick I caught pointed me to New York. That was yesterday. I think it was a trap all along, but I must be onto something. They wouldn't have lured me in if I wasn't onto something, right?"

"I think you're starting to sound a bit hopeful," said Rubie, realistically.

X remembered how optimistic she used to be. How bright and, he supposed, naïve. "You've changed, Rubie," he said to her.

"So have you, X," she replied curtly. Then her voice turned cold. "War does that."

"You know, there are worse things in the world than being a reploid."

"Oh?" she said, stopping what she was doing "How insensitive of me." She glanced down at X's arm.

"You know something X, this is probably the worst injury _you've_ ever had, and look at you! You're fixing it right on the spot! Oh the joy of being a reploid, right? How could I not appreciate that?"

X knew he'd touched a nerve and said nothing, but Rubie continued. "Do you know what happened to _me_? Do you know what that shot _did_? Forget about the months it took to relearn how to walk. Forget that! My stomach was punctured. I can't _eat_ anymore X; now I'm _fueled_. My intestinal tract was removed because it ran the risk of poisoning the rest of my body, and the doctor said that without a stomach it was 'unnecessary.'" She stared at him. "Do you understand how it feels to have a doctor look you in the eye and tell you that a once important part of your body is unnecessary?"

X continued to look at her sadly, but still said nothing. Rubie gripped her waistband. "_This_ can't be removed," she said looking down at her thighs. "And even if it could, my womb…you know what word the doctor used? 'Vaporized.'" She began to sob. "I will never have a child, X. I lost my humanity and my womanhood in a single instant…"

"I'm sorry," X said, as she tearfully got back to work on his arm. He didn't know what else to say, and returned his attention to his shoulder, painfully listening to her sobs across the table. _War really does change us,_ he thought.

"Oh no," Rubie sobbed after a few minutes, and X looked up to see what could be wrong now. Four green and two red lights were now up on his arm, and he thought he was doing well. Rubie pulled out a shattered microchip, no larger than a quarter. "Your buster's memory unit. It looks broken beyond repair."

_Damn,_ X thought, but he tried not to show his disappointment. He was afraid to spark Rubie's anger again by grieving over what, considering the situation, really was just a trivial loss. "It's alright, the blaster will work without it."

"But all those programs you collected!"

"It's fine, Rubie, they're just for support." Actually X had grown quite attached to the Shotgun Ice program. It would be a loss. "I'll be happy if I can just get the thing up and running again," he lied. "We have to be grateful for what we've got, and not just upset over what we've lost. You know?"

"Grateful for what we've got…" Rubie repeated thoughtfully.

After a few more minutes of work, X ran a diagnostic check on his blaster. "Looks like everything but the charge function is back, and I can finish that up at base. Help me hold this in place."

Rubie nodded and lifted the arm up to the joint at his shoulder. X began soldering.

"I'm sorry to snap at you," she said. "I haven't forgotten the day it happened. I know you tried to look out for me, X. I know you wanted to protect me. You were the smart one after all. And I…I was green and inexperienced and, I guess to use your word, careless. I'm sorry."

"it's ok, Rubie. I understand how hard it was for you. I don't blame you for leaving. And I really do hope that you and I come out of all this ok. I still do think of you as my friend."

X looked up at Rubie and was surprised. For the first time since he got there, she was smiling at him. He smiled back and returned to work.

About halfway through reattaching his arm, X's communicator lit up on the emergency channel with the image of a skinny orange reploid. It was Deck, a fellow Maverick Hunter at the C class. The image cut in and out and the sound was static. The communication caught X off guard. Jolting, he almost undid the half-complete seam on his arm, but Rubie held it in place.

"Deck? I thought you were out on recon. What's wrong?"

"X…" the communicator crackled. "Come…uick. I…important information. …Hunters…dangerous! Not much time…ending coordinates. Hurry…ot Zero!"

"Zero!? Did you find him? Deck!"

The communicator cut out there, but not before a set of coordinates came through. X assumed that was Deck's location. Still, he hoped slightly that they might lead him to Zero; that Deck had stumbled onto something crucial and all this searching wouldn't be in vain.

"What's going on?" Rubie asked.

"That was Deck," X replied, hastily getting on with his soldering. "He's been on recon duty not far from base. You heard the call, he might have found Zero! I need to get out there now."

"X what if this is another trap? You're in no condition to be hunting right now!"

"I don't have a choice. I need to find him. I need to get him back." X finished the job on his shoulder in a rush.

"This really does mean everything to you, doesn't it?" Rubie let go of his arm as it finally started moving again on its own.

X looked down at the table before answering. "Yes. Zero was the best hunter we could ever have asked for. He led us when there was no one else to do it. He stayed with us when the rest of his unit left. And he was my friend. He deserves more than to have his body desecrated by those…_Mavericks_." That last word came out with more contempt than Rubie ever thought him capable of.

"Then I have no choice," she sighed. Getting up, she stepped into a side room and out of sight. X's eyes followed her, wondering what she meant. She returned with her arm cannon.

"Oh no. Rubie, you've lost enough already. I don't want you risking your life again for me. Zero wouldn't have wanted it either."

"No. This is my choice. I am grateful for what I've still got, X, and that includes you. The least I can do is make sure you get back to Hunter Base safely. I can do that."

She smiled at him again and, though X still felt her loss, was admittedly excited at the prospect of her coming with him. He smiled back.

Rubie took a look at the coordinates Deck put through and went across the room to punch them into her personal transporter. "Let's get moving. Zero's counting on us."

The two hunters appeared in the middle of a park. X's global positioning system told him that their location wasn't far from Deck's recon point. They were close to Hunter Base as well.

"Something's wrong here," Rubie observed. Looking around, X could see why. The park was deserted, and burns were etched into the trees and the ground. A quick glance confirmed beyond a shadow of a doubt that they were caused by plasma cannon fire. Off next to a toppled tree in the distance he saw a body lying on the ground and recognized it immediately.

"Deck!"

He and Rubie ran over to him. Deck was still breathing but was damaged so extensively that nothing between his breastplate and his leg armor was recognizable. There wasn't much time, and X began to panic.

"Rubie, go to Hunter Base! Get some help!"

"Wait!" Deck wheezed out. Both hunters looked down at him.

"X…I'm…sorry."

"it's ok Deck, it's ok! We just need to get you help."

"No…I'm…done…for…please…stay…"

X sighed, tried to calm himself and kneeled down beside the wounded hunter, taking his hand. "What happened? You said something on the communicator about Zero?"

"They…have…him…X…Hunters…"

X didn't understand. "That doesn't make sense. Hunter Base has me out looking for Zero right now. They don't have his body."

"No…X…Hunters…attacked…me…have…Zero…ugh…"

"He's delirious…" Rubie remarked, and X couldn't help but agree with her. He wasn't making any sense at all.

"Deck, why would the Hunters attack you?" X pushed.

"No…not…Maverick…ugh…" Deck spasmed with pain and X clutched his hand tighter. Rubie looked away. His breathing was getting slower and his voice softer.

"X…don't…don't go…after…Zero…

"Why would I stop now, Deck?"

"Because…they…will…kill…you…"

As Deck spoke his final words X's eyes opened wide. The image of the spiked ball passed through his mind as he listened to Rubie's sobs behind him. Reaching out he closed Deck's eyes. Deck was dead, but X was too preoccupied to even grieve properly. Those last words rang in his ears.

He stood up, turning around to face his friend. "Rubie, I'm going back to Hunter Base. If they had something to do with this I need to know. I need answers." Rubie nodded, but stood still. After a moment X decided to ask a question, the most significant question he could think of, and one he'd wanted answered since Rubie went for her blaster at her home.

"Are you coming with me?"

Rubie looked more serious than he'd ever seen her before. She eyed him for a moment, before looking down at Deck in deep concentration. Tears began to fill her eyes. "X…I can't. I can't do this again."

"It's alright. That's fine," he consoled. Though he was a bit relieved for her, X hated to admit that he also felt slightly disappointed. The idea of getting to spend more time with Rubie definitely had its appeal.

"It's really better that you be safe. I've already lost Zero. I wouldn't want to lose you too."

Rubie stepped up to him and gave him a hug, holding him tight. "Thank you." She glanced back at Deck's body. "Are you going to take care of him?"

"Yes, I'll have the hunters come and collect his body. The funeral will be dignified this time."

"Good." She fell quiet, before whispering to him, "I really am glad you thought to call me tonight."

"Me too." X released the hug and looked into her eyes. "But I need to go now. I need to solve this."

Rubie nodded, looking back at him. "I know. Don't be such a stranger anymore, ya' hear?"

X smiled. Rubie hadn't slipped into her southern drawl at all until just then. X had always associated that accent with happier times. With how she was before the war. With her humanity. "Take care," he said, and watched her teleport back to her home. _Focus_, he thought, as he plugged in the coordinates to return to Maverick Hunter HQ.

Not a second after he arrived at base, X was on top of the officer on duty. He explained the situation and had the officer send a recovery team out to retrieve Deck's body, and make arrangements for a ceremony. With that burden off his shoulders, X bolted toward the infirmary wing. _If I can just get myself fixed up,_ he thought,_ I can go see high command and get some answers_.

Just then an elderly voice called out from behind him.

"X? You're back! Just in time, this…oh my goodness, what happened?"

X turned around to see Dr. Cain and his assistant approaching quickly; very quickly considering the doctor's gimp knee.

"Never mind about me, I'll be good as new in no time. What's wrong?"

"Er, oh yes," Dr. Cain stammered obviously distracted by X's extensive injuries. "We just received a message that I think you should hear immediately. It's from a group of Maverick reploids calling themselves the 'X Hunters.'"

X's body went stiff. "What did you say they're called?"

"The X Hunters."

X thought back to the events of the last few hours. To the spiked ball and his injury, to Deck's final warning. Deck…he might not have been so delirious after all. In fact now, now that X thought about it, Deck's final message made perfect sense. Even before he asked the question he knew what the answer was.

"What do they want?"

"They have Zero's remains. They're challenging you to retrieve them."

The anger rose in his heart at being so taunted. He looked at Dr. Cain's assistant, who was gazing back with a look of reverence. Ever since Sigma's defeat six months back the rest of the hunters seemed to look at X with a new sort of respect. He supposed it was the way they'd all looked at Zero before. It gave him a sense of confidence, but he wasn't sure he needed that sort of appreciation just then.

"Go get me that message," he said to the assistant. "Please bring it to me in the infirmary." The assistant nodded and ran off. He turned to Dr. Cain. "Let me go get myself fixed up. I'll come see you when I know what needs to be done." Dr. Cain nodded, and X continued down the hallway.

_This war isn't as close to ending as I hoped it was,_ X thought as he turned the corner into the infirmary wing. He thought about Rubie, safe at home. Given this new turn of events he no longer regretted her not being back with the Maverick Hunters. He wanted her safe. _Sometimes __we have to be grateful for what we still have._

As he walked on, approaching the infirmary as surely as he was approaching the next battle, one other thought crossed his mind. _Zero…I'm coming._


End file.
